An Assassin's Life
by Aria6
Summary: AU! Grimmjow and Shiro are assassins working under Sosuke Aizen. But Grimmjow was never given a choice about his career. What will happen when Aizen's hold on him breaks, and something touches his heart? Grimm/Shiro, Shiro/Grimm, Grimm/Ichi... possible threesome at the end. :)


"Yo, Nnoitra." Grimmjow said as he slouched into the room, cleaning out an ear with one pinky. "Ow fuck!" He hit his head on the lentil and cursed, rubbing the sore spot. "How'd the doors get so small all of a sudden?" He muttered although he knew it wasn't the doors, it was him.

He was fourteen years old and in the middle of a growth spurt. It didn't help that this particular part of the manor looked to have been designed for midgets. If he had to bend over, Nnoitra was even worse. But the bastard just gave him his usual piano toothed grin.

"Hey Grimmjow! So what do you think of this bitch?" He gestured to the middle of the room and Grimmjow followed his gaze. There was a woman tied down to a cot and gagged with a bundled up piece of cotton. He moved to her side and glanced her over, analyzing her in an old, reflexive way.

Her clothing was nice. It was very neutral colors, beige and brown, but it looked like a very fine material. Grimmjow was an expert on ascertaining if someone was worth stealing from, and to him her clothing looked brand name. He dropped his gaze to her shoes and nodded. They looked simple, brown lace up boots, but they were high quality. Then he glanced up, noting the necklace around her neck. A statement necklace, it wasn't fine jewelry but again, it said she had some money. Someone from the poor side of town didn't drop a hundred bucks on a piece of Ralph Lauren jewelry. Then he moved his gaze to her arms. No needle tracks, nothing to show she might be on the junk. Her face told the same story. A fair complexion, no sign of acne or skin disorders. Hair that was full and naturally wavy, light brown and undyed.

"Well, she's not a bitch. She's a classy lady." He said before reaching down to gently touch the necklace, lifting it with his fingers and turning it to see the clasp. "Ralph Lauren. I'm good." He'd even gotten the designer correct. "Her taste is too good to be one of the dames." That was what he called the women who knew what they were, but married or dated one of them anyway. He didn't consider them innocent, exactly. They traded tips on things like how to clean guns and remove bloodstains. They weren't as bad as the men who did the killing, but they weren't innocent. "What did she do?" He asked, finally letting himself take in the full picture. His feelings weren't quite dead and he felt a bit of pity for the woman, in her fine clothing with tear streaks on her face. She was looking at him desperately, as if she could tell he still had some compassion left.

"Her? She didn't do a fucking thing." Nnoi said, still grinning. "It's a message to her man. He's a doctor and he handed one of our boys over to the cops." He explained and Grimmjow sighed, scratching behind one ear.

"Another message? Can't we just kill the person we're pissed off with?" He asked and the woman made a muffled sound behind her gag. He glanced at her and saw more tears on her face. "Well, what do you need me for? Jacked off so much you've forgotten how to use a gun?" She was shaking and Grimmjow just shook his head. She was doomed and there wasn't a fucking thing he could do about it. Nnoitra laughed, setting a hand on the cot beside her bed.

"Ain't you fourteen now?" He asked and Grimmjow blinked, wondering what his age could have to do with this. "About time for a boy to become a man. You still a virgin?"

"What the fuck?" Grimmjow asked, his mind suddenly blazing with rage. He started forward but then managed to hold himself back. Nnoitra wasn't as strong as he was but his ranking with Aizen was higher. He'd be in deep shit if he shoved this asshole's teeth down his throat like he deserved. "I worked under Barragan for a year. No, I am not a fucking virgin." With the second's tastes, that was a given.

"Oh yeah. But have you ever touched a woman before?" Nnoitra asked and Grimmjow grit his teeth. He really wanted to kill the fucker now.

"What the fuck is your point Nnoitra? Because I'm about to walk out the door." He said and Nnoitra scowled, reaching up to scratch under his eyepatch.

"You are thick as a fucking brick, you know? I want you to rape this bitch." He stated plainly and Grimmjow's eyes widened. "Unless you don't have the balls for it." He sneered and Grimmjow's hands clenched.

"Fuck. You." He snarled the words, taking a menacing step forward. He was close to forgetting his place. And even at fourteen, in the middle of a growth spurt and with seasonal allergies making his nose drip, he was feared. Nnoitra didn't look very intimidated but he didn't scare easily. "I don't do torture."

"Torture? It ain't torture, it's rape." Nnoitra said, honestly not understanding why Grimmjow put the two together. Grimmjow glanced at the woman. She was sobbing, muffled by the gag. Well shit, they were talking about her like she was a piece of meat right in front of her. Grimmjow honestly hated Nnoitra at this moment. "And she's gonna die anyway, why not use her?"

"Why not cut her liver out and eat it, too?" Grimmjow said sarcastically. Nnoitra grinned.

"Well, if you want to – woah! Back off." He said sharply as Grimmjow took a swing at him. The lanky bastard danced away, his expression going to a scowl. "Okay, this is a fucking order. Rape that bitch, then kill her, or I'll tell Aizen you're disobeying my fucking orders." Grimmjow's eyes narrowed but Nnoitra didn't stick around. He just left, bending almost double to get through the stupid door. The teen huffed an annoyed sigh before glancing at the woman again. She was looking at him, her brown eyes wide and pleading. For a moment, he debated what to do.

Grimmjow had no doubt that Nnoitra would report him for disobedience if he failed to obey orders. He just wasn't sure he cared. He'd learned not to talk about it after his first year in this place, but he was still a devout Catholic. His parents had raised him in the faith and being orphaned, then kidnapped by Aizen hadn't really changed anything. This was his challenge and it was his duty to rise to it, to do the best he could despite his horrible circumstances.

Aizen had kidnapped him for murder, so that had been a lost cause from the beginning. Grimmjow's eyes hardened as he thought about it. He'd lost track of how many people he'd killed, and the first had been at ten years of age. But he'd set some rules for himself, things he would not bend on. Killing a child and torture were both in that small book of morals. So far the first hadn't come up and Aizen didn't really give a shit if he didn't want to participate in torture. He had plenty of minions who loved it.

"Fuck Nnoitra." Grimmjow said as he came to his decision. He was going to hold onto what little was left of his soul, and there was no way in hell he was raping this lady. Turning to her, he hesitated a moment. He was tempted to just pull his gun and finish her off, but something about the look she was giving him stopped him. She wanted to say something, he could tell and even though it would probably just be useless pleading he found he couldn't deny her. He drew a knife and sliced the gag away, pulling the cotton out of her mouth.

"Please, don't do this." She begged and Grimmjow sighed. Why did he have to be right? "I have a little boy, two daughters…" He snorted and jerked down his hand, interrupting her.

"And I have a little sister. If I get you out of here, my boss will slaughter her and her foster family." Grimmjow said flatly. His sister, Nelliel, was the hold Aizen had over him. They were actually half-siblings and after they'd been orphaned they'd been thrown into the system. A very nice couple had taken them both and they'd been lucky for a while, until his budding power had caught Aizen's eye. The woman stopped, shock crossing her face.

"You're just a boy." She whispered, really looking at him. Grimmjow grimaced and rubbed his nose, sniffing a bit. Stupid allergies. "Why would he…?"

"I'm a half-celestial." He said shortly. He took no pride in his heritage, when every aspect of his life was spitting on his nature. "I think the boss gets a thrill out of tainting angels." He wasn't the only part angel on the staff. The other was Starrk, and Aizen had a very similar hold on him, his daughter Lilynette. The Primera was much older, though, and seemed completely dead inside. "Nevermind that. I have to kill you." He stated flatly and she bit her lip, tearing up again. "If I don't, someone else will and they'll rape you first." He was certain of that. Nnoitra would probably do it himself. "I'll be punished but I don't give a shit. Now, any last words?" Normally he wouldn't give any prisoner that much, but something about this woman was bothering him. She sniffed and managed to compose herself.

"Please… tell my Isshin I love him. And tell… tell Ichigo to never stop smiling." She said softly and Grimmjow frowned, realizing something.

"What's your name?" He asked. If he didn't know that he'd have trouble telling anyone anything. She blinked before giving him a tremulous smile.

"Kurosaki Masaki." She said and Grimmjow nodded as he drew his gun.

_**THWACK.**_ A hole appeared in the middle of her forehead. There was no time for even surprise to register on her face. Grimmjow was the fastest draw among the Espada, except perhaps for Starrk. He looked at the body for a moment before putting his gun away with a sigh.

"I hate my life sometimes." He muttered to himself as he left the room. No doubt Nnoitra had orders to drop the body somewhere, and maybe he would play with it a bit to torture her family. If he ever managed to get a message to them, he would tell them she hadn't suffered too much. Listening to strangers discuss her death was suffering, in his opinion. But at least she hadn't been raped.

That was something.

* * *

Grimmjow hissed as he sat down very gingerly to supper.

"Oi! Bluebell! You're looking like someone shoved a poker up your ass." That was his only real friend in this place and Grimmjow refrained from shoving a fist in his face, although it was tempting.

"Up yours Shiro." He said before digging into his food. It was a beef stir fry with broccoli and rice, tasty and filling. His friend slipped into place across from him and stole a piece of broccoli, making him put an arm around his food with a scowl. "And get your own, fucker!"

"I already did. They don' wanna give me seconds." Shiro said in a pouting tone and Grimmjow rolled his eyes. "Don' look like that! I'm a growing boy." That was certainly true. Shirosaki was scrawny as hell, but that was because he was very quickly adding to his height. Grimmjow was sure that in a year everything would have settled in place, but right now he was a mess, eating everything in sight and running into doorways.

"Yeah, well, so am I." Grimmjow said as he shoveled in his food. His growth spurt wasn't as bad as Shiro's, though. Aizen had actually demoted the white boy from the Espada and put him on other duties until his coordination problems got ironed out. Shiro was a demon hybrid, so Aizen was sure he'd pull himself together. The boss could be patient. "So what are you doing this week? Cleaning the bathrooms?"

"Oh fuck you!" Shiro fumed and Grimmjow grinned. Mentioning his current duties was sure to rile the kid up. "I hear you got punished because you didn' fuck a girl. You queer?" He asked and Grimmjow paused in his eating, eyeing Shiro warily. He sounded way too interested.

"No, I'm not fucking queer." He said gruffly, although it might be a bit of a lie. Actually… "I'm probably bisexual, I guess. I mean, I didn't hate being Barragan's fuck toy." Shiro made a face and leaned away from him. Grimmjow grinned at that reaction. It was honestly pretty funny. "I didn't love it either but he ain't that sexy."

"Fuck man, shut up! You're scarring me." Shiro pleaded before going back to his original thought. "Why didn't you fuck her then? She was hot, I heard." Grimmjow paused in his eating, narrowing his eyes. "She was just gonna die anyway, why waste her?"

"What is with you guys? Just because someone's going to die, we should make it worse? Would you eat her liver, too? I mean why waste the body, right?" Shiro looked thoughtful and Grimmjow regretted mentioning it. Demon hybrids did tend towards cannibalism. "Look, nevermind. I don't want to know if you'd really eat her liver." Shiro grinned at that and Grimmjow sighed. "Can I just eat please? My ass hurts."

"What, did he spank you?" Shiro asked, highly entertained and Grimmjow shot him a scorching glare. "He did! Man, that shit is hilarious."

"Fuck off or get me some goddamned tea." He grunted and Shiro actually went to fetch him some tea. It was green and bitter but he drank it anyway. "Thanks." Shiro let him eat in peace for a while, stealing the occasional piece of broccoli. Grimmjow let him. The other kid wasn't getting paid much, so he couldn't really afford to buy food. Grimmjow still had his full Espada pay so he could always pick up something later.

"It was just a spanking, right? Nothin' else?" Shiro said and Grimmjow was surprised at the genuine worry in his tone. He shrugged then nodded.

"A paddling, actually." He said sourly. Aizen had different punishments for the men and the boys. Being paddled was humiliating and painful, but not nearly as painful as what a man might expect. "He only ordered Nnoi to off the woman. The rape was his own idea, so I only disobeyed him, not Aizen." Aizen's plans hadn't been affected at all and that was a relief. Insubordination happened all the time and it was a relatively minor offense. If anything, Aizen had been amused by the matter.

"Oh, good." Shiro said in relief before eyeing his plate with undisguised longing. Grimmjow sighed to himself and pushed the thing over to him. There was only a quarter of it left and Shiro didn't need an invitation, eating hungrily with his fingers.

"You really are starving. Want to hit up Denny's after work tonight?" He asked and Shiro looked up, astonished but happy. He knew that was an offer of free food.

"Ya mean it? I'd love that." He said and Grimmjow grinned, taking a sip of his tea.

"Yeah, I'll probably be hungry by then anyway. I'll grab you when I get back." His job tonight was reconnaissance. Aizen was interested in getting back the man that doctor had alerted the police to. Although maybe not alive. Going to the Kurosaki clinic with a gunshot wound had been a mistake and while Aizen had given his warning to the good doctor, he wasn't happy with his gunman either. Grimmjow honestly didn't care either way. In fact, he'd prefer offing the scum. Supernaturals like himself often weren't given much choice about signing up, but the human team chose to be where they were.

"Awesome! See ya blue." Shiro said enthusiastically and Grimmjow's bitterness eased into something almost like pleasure. He didn't know how Shiro could stay so happy here, although it likely had something to do with his demon heritage. Murder just didn't bother him. That bothered Grimmjow a bit, but not too much. Shiro couldn't help what he was, it was bred into him. Pushing himself away from the table, Grimmjow quickly checked his weapons before leaving to start his night.

He had plenty of work ahead of him.

* * *

"So ya sh – uh…" Shiro stumbled to a halt as Grimmjow shot him a scorching look. They were in the middle of Denny's, waiting for their food. True, there was almost no one else there but he still didn't want his friend running his mouth. That was the kind of mistake that could get you killed. "Took care of the problem?"

"Yeah, it's not a problem anymore." Grimmjow grunted as he rubbed his nose then sneezed. "GodDAMN these allergies!" He was getting very good at suppressing sneezes, but it just an enormous pain in the ass. Shiro sniggered. "Oh, shut up. Jerk." He growled and his best friend just grinned. "What have you been up to lately, anyway?"

"My eyeballs in dishes?" Shiro said sourly and Grimmjow laughed. The food arrived then and Shiro made a gargling noise as he set eyes on his one AM breakfast. It was sirloin beef tips, three eggs, hash browns and toast. Also a side order of pancakes. Grimmjow was sure he'd be able to finish every bit of it. He immediately started ravening through it and Grimmjow sipped his coffee before trying his more modestly sized Californian omelette with hash browns. "Nnn so good… uh yeah. I've been trying to get the top score on the So You Think You Can Dance game." Shiro said and the blue assassin almost choked on his coffee.

"I thought you had that already!" Last time he'd checked, Shiro had been in all top four slots. The fifth had been Halibel, and he really wondered when she'd played the thing. Shiro pouted before eating another piece of steak.

"That bastard Starrk saw me playing it and he wanted a turn. Blew me out of the water, the cocksucker." Grimmjow snorted. He'd heard that Starrk had been in training to be a ballet dancer when Aizen found him, but he hadn't really believed it. Maybe he'd been wrong on that. "So what have you been up to, other than work?"

"I've signed up for indoor climbing." Grimmjow said easily. "At that gym we go to." There was a very ritzy gym not far from Aizen's mansion and plenty of his Espada had memberships. Shiro looked a little jealous and Grimmjow smiled. "You want to come? We're allowed to bring visitors for a session, try to get 'em to sign up." If Shiro liked it, maybe he would pay for the white kid to come. Shiro could pay him back someday, he'd be good for it.

"You're the best friend ever! When is it?" Shiro asked and Grimmjow told him the dates and times. It was early in the mornings, but that was fine. He could go to the climbing, come home and sleep before needing to go out to work. The Espada always worked in the night, for obvious reasons. "Right before I gotta start work, that's perfect! Oh thanks!" He beamed at the waitress as she refilled his glass of coke and she smiled back, enchanted by his odd looks and friendly nature. Grimmjow smiled to himself as he took a sip of his tea. Shiro was endearing, in his half-demonic way.

After that their conversation went to football and Grimmjow just enjoyed being with his friend. It might be a little odd, two assassins eating at Denny's and chatting about the local games, but they were just kids.

Aizen could take many things away from them, but he could never entirely remove their childhood.


End file.
